Classifying cone photoreceptors in the living human eye using their unique phase response to light

Human color vision is achieved by mixing neural signals from cone photoreceptors sensitive to long- (L), medium- (M), and short- (S) wavelength light. The spatial arrangement and proportion of these spectral types in the retina set fundamental limits on color perception, and abnormal or missing types lead to color vision deficiencies. In vivo mapping of the trichromatic cone mosaic provides the most direct and quantitative means to assess the role photoreceptors play in color vision, but current methods of in vivo imaging have important limitations that preclude their widespread use. In this study, we present a new method for classifying cones based on their unique phase response to flashes of quasi-monochromatic light. Our use of phase provides unprecedented efficiency (30 min of subject time/retinal location) and accuracy (<0.02% of uncertainty), thus making in vivo cone classification practical in a wide range of color vision applications. We used adaptive optics optical coherence tomography to resolve cone cells in 3D and customized post-processing algorithms to extract the phase signal of individual cones. We successfully characterized light-induced changes to the phase signature of cones under different illuminant spectra, established the relationship between this phase change and the three cone spectral types, and used this relationship to classify and map cones in two color normal subjects.